Inmate Fights Off a Dozen Guards with Homemade Nunchucks, Escapes

One man army is back in custody, say cops

Receive the latest weird updates in your inbox

Lorenzo Pollard, an iinmate who escaped from a St. Louis correctional facility by fighting off guards using handmade nunchucks is back in custody.

Updated at 6:36 AM CST on Tuesday, Sep 20, 2011

A St. Louis prison inmate who escaped after fighting through more than a dozen guards using homemade nunchucks was back in custody, police said.

Lorenzo Pollard, 31, made the weapon from a bedsheet and and a chair, and used them to battle his way out of the medium security city Workhouse. The daring escape prompted a suspension of Commissioner Gene Stubbefield and a review of past jailbreaks.

Pollard made his escape as he was being led by guards to a shower area. As guards called for backup, Pollard climbed to a second tier of jail cells, swinging the nunchucks as a dozen guards tried to subdue him, according to the paper. He next used the nunchucks to smash through a glass wall and then scaled two razor-wire fences.

Pollard, who was in jail on charges of theft, trespassing, property damage and resisting arrest, escaped despite a swarm of police dogs and a search helicopter. But hours later, police said he was back in custody after being captured without incident on a city street.

It was the latest in a series of escapes from city lockups, according to the paper. In July, an inmate escaped the Workhouse by walking through an open gate and jumping the fences. He was captured a day later. In April, two inmates broke free from the St. Louis Justice Center by crawling through an access panel in the ceiling of the infirmary and climbing down the side of the building with a bedsheet. They were caught later that day.

In 2010, two inmates escaped the Workhouse and were on the loose for more than 12 hours, according to the Post-Dispatch.